1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ready-to-eat (R-T-E) food products. More particularly, the invention relates to a cereal product coated with dry powdered coffee or coffee substitute.
2. General Background and State of the Art
Food products that require little or no preparation have been available to the consumer for many years. These food products include breakfast cereals that are pre-sweetened and/or pre-flavored, whereby it is necessary only to add milk or hot water, depending upon the type of cereal and the desired flavor to prepare the cereal for normal consumption. Improvements to breakfast cereal are constantly being developed in terms of flavor and texture. Coffee has one of the most recognized and desirable flavor.
Coffee flavor can be added in limited amounts to R-T-E cereal products. However, at higher levels of coffee flavor, the presence of such high amounts of coffee ingredients can adversely interfere with other desired characteristics. For example, high levels of added coffee ingredients can negatively affect the taste, texture, color or density of the R-T-E cereal products.
Among the various types of R-T-E cereal products, puffed R-T-E cereals are especially desired. Thus, it would be desirable to provide puffed R-T-E cereal with coffee flavoring. One technique involves applying a topical coating especially a sugar coating to provide the desired level of coffee flavor fortification. While useful to provide coffee flavor for those puffed R-T-E cereals intended to be presweetened, not all puffed R-T-E cereals are presweetened.
Extruders are often used in the preparation of various food products and especially in the preparation of ready-to-eat (“R-T-E”) cereals such as puffed products. Extruders, especially cooker extruders, are desirable because a single machine can produce large quantities of a cooked cereal dough in a short period of time. Such cooker extruders can be used to prepare cooked dough extrudates which can thereafter be formed into individual cereal or snack pieces, with the formation of such pieces possibly involving puffing the pieces to form finished puffed R-T-E cereals. In another variation that is increasingly popular, the conditions of the extruder and the cooked cereal dough are such that the dough puffs immediately upon being extruded and is cut into individual puffed pieces at the die head. Such a process is referred to generally as “direct expansion”.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,769 describes a breakfast cereal suitable for use as cold cereal by the addition of milk, or as a hot cereal by the addition of hot water. The cereal is prepared by heating rolled oats to cook the starch and protein contained therein, applying liquid milk in sufficient quantity only to wet the oats and to distribute it evenly throughout the oat product, and then drying the wet product to crispness, producing a crunchy product. During the manufacturing process, the flaky or granular cereal is either sprayed or sprinkled with liquid milk in which sugar, salt, fruit juice puree, and/or flavoring materials are dissolved, whereby the mixture is absorbed by the oat flakes and evenly distributed throughout the body of the flakes.
An example of a pre-sweetened breakfast cereal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,984. This patent purports to overcome the difficulty in the prior art of sweetening cereals with fructose sweeteners. The use of fructose sweeteners, which are normally in a liquid state, was not practical before the invention described in this patent, since such coating resulted in a sticky, messy product. The teaching in this patent overcomes this difficulty and enables liquid fructose sweeteners to be used on cereal products, by covering or coating the sticky fructose coating with an edible powdered material to eliminate the stickiness. Examples of the powdered material are given as sucrose, lactose, dried corn syrup solids, corn starch, wheat starch, dried milk solids and/or dextrose. In the process described in this patent, the liquid sweetener is treated to evaporate a majority of the moisture from the liquid sweetener and then it is applied to the cereal pieces by using an enrober drum while the liquid sweetener is still at an elevated temperature and thus fluid. A limited amount of the powdered material is dusted onto the coated cereal pieces as cooling takes place. The liquid sweetener captures the powdered material, and the powdered material substantially eliminates the cohesiveness and stickiness of the coated pieces. There is no suggestion in this patent of adding coffee flavoring or coffee extract to the cereal so that addition of milk or other liquid results in a coffee flavored liquid.
A creamy orange flavored snack cereal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,914. The food product described in this patent includes a popped cereal that includes a powdered dairy or dairy substitute product which simulates cream flavor, in combination with powdered orange or artificial orange flavor. The purpose of this patent is to provide a product which may be eaten as a snack without milk or liquid and yet has a “creamy” flavor. The patent describes two essential ingredients as being required in order to produce the invention. These are the constituent which creates the simulated cream flavor, and the constituent which creates the orange flavor. The cream flavor or creamy ice cream flavor is obtained by using powdered non-dairy cream substitutes such as, for example, coffee creamer or cream flavoring. The patent states that the food product may be eaten with milk, or used as a dry snack eaten like potato chips or other dry snacks. There is no suggestion in this patent of adding coffee flavoring or coffee extract coating onto prepared cereal pieces.
Other ready-to-eat or easily prepared food products are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,578,459, 3,992,556, 4,485,120, 4,585,664 and 4,755,390. These patents all relate to the use of various additives and/or manufacturing processes which enhance the nutritional value and/or quality, e.g., texture, flavor, etc., of the resultant product.
Applicant is not aware of any prior art teaching of a dry, ready-to-eat cereal product coated with a coffee product, such as espresso, cappuccino flavor, caffeinated coffee or decaffeinated coffee, or any combination thereof, so that it is necessary only to add milk to produce a ready-to-eat cereal and milk combination. Alternatively, the coffee-coated dry cereal product of the invention may be eaten straight from the box, without the addition of milk or water or other beverage. The prior art does not disclose anything comparable.